Middlebury Panthers make it two straight with St. Lawrence Carnival win

Middlebury Panthers make it two straight with St. Lawrence Carnival win{mosimage}Middlebury’s first ski carnival victory was 21 years in the making. The second only took a week. Kate Newick’s one-second win in the women’s 15-kilometer classic on Saturday highlighted a huge second-day rally for the Panthers, who came back from a 31-point deficit to claim their second consecutive carnival win.

Middlebury won the men’s 20km classic and the women’s 15km classic and finished second in both the men’s and women’s slalom to take a 561-540 victory over the University of Vermont, with Dartmouth third at 519.5.

Newick’s time of 54:49.3 at the Mount Van Hoevenberg course bested Dartmouth’s Chrissy May by 1.1 seconds, with Panther teammates Kate Whitcomb (fifth in 55:44.0) and Claire Anderson (seventh in 55:53.3) also making the top 10.

UVM’s Ethan Foster blew out to a 69-second victory in the 20km classic, but Middlebury’s Garrott Kuzzy, Colin Rodgers, Marshall Greene and Dan Skold hogged the rest of the spots in the top five to give the Panthers a 14-point win in the event.

“Things went really well for us today. I honestly don’t remember placing four men in the top five; I’m pretty sure it’s never happened,” said Terry Aldrich, in his 29th season coaching at Middlebury.

“We got home a little ahead of the alpine guys,” he said, “but let me tell you, when they arrived at the field house, they were a happy bunch.”

The Catamounts scored their lone triumph of the day in the women’s slalom, with Jamie Kingsbury, Hilary McCloy and Erin Mascolino coming in 3-5-8 in a race claimed by a whopping 1.79 seconds by Dartmouth’s Courtney Calise.

But the UVM men, who carried the day in Friday’s giant slalom, failed to register a single place in the top 10. Colby’s Warner Nickerson claimed his second win in two weekends by nipping Dartmouth’s Paul McDonald, and Middlebury placed John Rusten fourth, David Coriell sixth, Fred Emich seventh and Eric Rygg ninth.

The Catamounts have a golden chance to rebound with next weekend’s UVM Carnival at Stowe. UVM has won its own event 31 consecutive times.

— Burlington, Vt., Free Press